Nativity
Epistle to all the ROCA faithful in the Washington, D.C. Diocese.

In these sacred
days of the Glorious Feast of the Nativity of Christ, we always congratulate
everyone and wish each other peace and joy.

The majestic
angels’ prayer heralds “Glory be to God in the
highest, and peace on earth.”This peace
is not the peace as we know it in human terms, a calm which cannot exist on
this sinful earth, as it is not the peace which God created in the Garden of
Eden for those people who were sinless at that time.

The peace of
which the angels sang is a spiritual peace, a peace with God, which can bless
anyone and anywhere.It is that peace
which the martyrs for Christ possessed and which gave them, and gives us, the
strength for the soul to overcome the flesh in any circumstance and in any
place.

It is this peace
we wish to all of you in these festive days and in the year to come.